Crocodile Farm 2 – Hmm... Feels Like We Forgot Something...
The mess that began with someone's trolling had awakened the Queen of Chaos herself. What started as an event within an event ended with the streamers of the village summoning a boss and launching a full raid. [Haaah... haaah... Damn it... This is exhausting as hell...] [I don't even know how many times I died...]
But the real problem was this: [Uwaaang~ Let me in~. Black Bean Squad~ Those bastards are ostracizing meee~ Sob sob.] [What do you mean, exile~? Are you telling us to die out here~?] [Yeah~ You guys stay right there and live~. Especially you, Ryu. I'm never letting you back in.] [Hey, you got no conscience? You guys are still summoning monsters!!!]
[This won't work if we just keep waiting.] [Right. Our kids aren't saying anything, but I bet these bastards will summon more monsters the moment they swarm. I'm sure of it.] [Let's just go out ourselves. They said the monsters move once they're all gathered, so why don't we strike first and stop them from gathering?] [Ooh~ Genius? Let's do it right now!]
With the dual purpose of releasing the internal enemies outside and preventing the monsters from gathering by attacking early, the defending streamers decided on a counteroffensive. Soon after, they gathered the people waiting outside and began their march. Of course, the exiled trolls had somehow rejoined them. (They figured leaving things as they were might turn the inside of the village into a monster farm.)
Incidentally, someone had a sparkling fluorescent name tag floating above their head, complete with a radiation warning symbol. {Handle with Care. Nuclear Waste. - Coffee Cat} (Naturally, the moment they saw the name tag, they got angry and donated a second round of "that subscription.")
While they were moving, some viewers who had been planning terrorism inside the village kept summoning monsters out of sheer disappointment. [Hey, hey, stop it already. We're outside now, so just ignore them and keep going.] [Everyone~ Ignore the summoned monsters and move past them~ We've already lost too much time and it's dangerous~] [Oki. Let's go~]
...The path they left behind had monsters forming a long, winding belt.
*****
The defending streamers continued their advance for a while. Eventually, a massive horde of monsters came into view in the distance. [Alright~ As I explained on the way, those with AoE skills take the front, and the rogues split off to the sides to block the castle entrance where the monsters are coming from~] [Yes~] [Yep~]
Their strategy was simple. Sweep away the gathered monsters with AoE attacks while the rogues circled around to seal the Dark Castle entrance and cut off any additional monsters trying to join. As planned, most of the rogues and some hidden classes with powerful single-target damage peeled off to the side and began flanking the monster army. The remaining forces advanced until they stopped near the massive horde.
Some streamers with particularly strong AoE skills drank invisibility potions and approached the monster army while stealthed. They began casting their AoE skills across their pre-assigned zones. [Alright~ Get ready~] [3.] [2.] [1.] [Fire!!]
Monsters were swept away in waves. The survivors were met with a charging force. [Charge~!!] [Waaaaah~~] [Grab them! Kill them!] [Kill. Kill. Kill~~~!!!]
The streamers cleaned up the remaining monsters while the viewers, who had been waiting for this moment, began donating. Ding~ Ding~ Ding~ As the donation alerts rang out, fresh new monsters started appearing among the nearly cleared horde. [Hey, you son of a—! Who's summoning monsters again~!!] [Forget it, we almost had them all anyway. Leave the rest and head for the castle.] [Oki. Let's go~]
The group ran toward the castle, avoiding the mountains of monster corpses piled up behind them. The monsters left behind seemed to follow for a moment, but as the distance grew, they stopped and stood blankly before eventually scattering in all directions.
*****
A short while later, streamers began gathering in front of the Dark Castle. [Hey~ Welcome. This place is a leveling paradise~] The advance party greeted them warmly. They had been steadily farming experience by killing the monsters that kept emerging from the entrance. [Wow... These guys are just sitting here sucking up all the honey.] [Ahaha... We just kept killing them as they came out, and it turned out like this.]
The streamers' eyes lit up at the unexpected honey spot they had discovered. [So... if we set up a combat leveling farm here...?]
The streamers had unintentionally turned the place into an experience farm. The management team watched them with serious expressions. [Hyung, is it okay to leave them like this? Right now...] [Pfft. Heh. Hehehe...] [Hey, control your face. We're supposed to be serious right now.] [Ah... I can't stop smiling thinking about what's coming later.] [Kek. Me too. Hey, hey, they're looking over here. Act serious. Quick.]
...They were definitely hiding something. The streamers, watching the management team, looked thoroughly amused. [Oh~ You didn't expect it to turn out like this, did you? Feeling serious now?] [What are you guys gonna do? Huh? If we turn this place into an experience farm, what are you gonna do about it!] [Kya kya kya~ Yummy~ We'll eat well~]
No, they were straight-up mocking them. ...Are these guys going to be okay?
Meanwhile, the Babel Tower side was far too peaceful. [The sunset sky~♪ And your blushing face~ ♪] [Whistle~. Whoo~~ So cool~ So pretty~~] Someone stood in the middle of the plaza inside Babel Tower, singing, while others surrounded them cheering. Musicians inside played instruments, enriching the song even further.
People enjoyed the music while others bought and sold what they needed. [Boss, this is too expensive~] [Hey~ I'm selling at a loss, okay? You don't trust me? Huh?] Some pursued their hobbies. [Today I'm gonna be the fishing king!] [Anyone wanna go on a cherry blossom forest vacation with me~ Come here~] [Anyone up for a Babel Tower tour~ First come, first served!]
And then there were those unleashing all sorts of memes while bullying the few remaining monsters. [Take my sword~] [Ora ora ora~] [You're already dead.] Even those using the donation system to supply the lacking monsters. [Alright~ Everyone~ We're only summoning exactly 10 times~. No doing 30 like last time, got it?]
Everyone was either enjoying the content to the fullest or creating their own. Crocodile and his crew monitored the situation. "Whoa... The atmosphere on both sides is completely opposite..." "Well, that side's killing and this side's healing?" "It's nice that they're all playing however they want. Haha."
... "By the way, we should probably prepare that gift for the people who want some killing." "Ah... That thing? Kekeke."
A few days after the defending side had set up their leveling farm under the guise of a counter-siege, monsters kept dying as they emerged from the entrance while the wide corridor inside gradually filled with more and more monsters. The monsters that had been streaming out would spot the people camped outside the castle, hesitate for a moment, then get melted by focused fire. That brief delay stacked up, and without anyone noticing, monsters had been accumulating inside the castle.
Moreover, the monsters were supposed to stop spawning from the altar and begin marching toward the village once a certain number gathered in the open area. But because the open area never reached that threshold, the altar kept spawning and sending them out, causing the internal count to grow even larger. Rusty's A.I. detected this and modified the monster logic in real time, causing creepers to blow up the castle walls and allowing monsters to spill out through the gaps.
Kwang~! Kwang~! Kwang~! Kwang~! Kwang~! Kwang~! The walls began collapsing in an instant, and monsters poured out through the openings. Urrrrrr~~. [Huh? That's...] [!!!! We're screwed! Monsters are coming from everywhere! Emergency~! Emergency~!]
The monsters that had poured out from inside the castle spotted the streamers lounging nearby (there were tons of people, but since there was only one castle gate, most were either waiting nearby or had returned to the village) and charged all at once. [Wah, wh-what the—!] [Where did these mobs come from?] [Did someone summon them again?] [No, they came from the castle. Look over there—the walls are breached!] [Is this the time to figure out the cause? Block them! We're getting surrounded!] [Ah, shit...]
Just as someone said, monsters poured out from over ten holes and quickly surrounded and wiped out the relatively few people present. [Ah... We're screwed...] [Hey, call everyone! We need to gather everyone back at the village!]
The monsters then marched straight toward the village. Since the number had already exceeded what could gather in the open area, the A.I. sent them all to the village while continuing to spawn new ones to gather in the open area. By the time the first monster wave reached the village, the second wave had already departed. Hell had broken loose in the village.
... [Monsters are coming~! Mages, wait on the walls~!] [Attack once they get within a certain distance! We need to thin their numbers first!] [Especially the creepers! Focus fire on creepers first! If we leave them alone, they'll blow up our walls!]
Over the past few days, most defending streamers had left the castle area since there was no need to stay glued to it. They only managed to gather just before the monsters arrived at the village. It was fortunate that some streamers who had already been in the village sacrificed themselves with suicide charges to hold the line—otherwise, they would have come face-to-face with monsters the moment they returned.
As they struggled to hold back the monsters, news reached them. [Uwaaak~ More monsters coming from behind~] Morale plummeted at the thought of reinforcements for an already overwhelming horde. [We're done for... How are we supposed to kill all of them...] [Damn it. We should've destroyed the altar from the start...]
The reason they were struggling so much was because they had noticed the monsters were gradually getting stronger as they killed them over the past few days. It was literally Phase 1, then Phase 2, then Phase 3. The more monsters they killed, the tougher the remaining ones became. What used to die in one hit now required two or three people focusing fire just to take down. Back then, the sweet experience had made them happy, but now... [Damn it... We didn't expect it to turn out like this...]
Right... Greed always comes back to bite you...
Meanwhile, on the Babel Tower side, one streamer was running in circles with a horde of monsters chasing behind. [Run run run~ Our Mabel is running~] [Mabel-nim, if you run too fast, the mobs won't follow. Please adjust the distance~] [Alright~ This time, focus fire on the mobs at the very back~] [Yes~] [They're coming! Get ready~ Shoot~!!] Boom. Kwa-kwang!
Thanks to one person's sacrifice, the rest were comfortably continuing their hunt. Of course, at first, multiple people had taken turns as bait. [This is weird... It's strangely efficient only when Mabel-nim does it?] [Right? When someone else does it, most of the mobs scatter, but when Mabel-nim does it, it's super stable.] [Is Mabel-nim's movement speed optimized for mob pulling or something...?] [Well... I don't know about that, but for that reason, we've decided Mabel-nim is now permanently in charge of pulling. Done. Done.]
...And so it was decided. Thanks to that, a world where everyone except one person was happy had been created. [Hahaha~] [Ahahaha~] [Kyaaarrrk~] [You sons of bitches~!! Stop laughing and kill them already~~~!!!]
...By the way... Aren't you guys going to destroy the altar? The village kids are dying out there...